Device for endwise unwinding of delivery reels



March 6, 1962 1.. MEGENS ETAL DEVICE FOR ENDWISE UNWINDING OF DELIVERY REELS Filed April 19, 1957 INVENTOR 3 Sheets-Sheet l LUDOVICUS MEGENS WILHELMUS LEONARD LOUIS LENDEFE March 6, 1962 MEGENS EI'AL ,97

DEVICE FOR ENDWISE UNWINDING OF DELIVERY REELS Filed April 19, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 21 f ,1 v w \w? 19 X A, is I 818 z :3 x 24 25 26 {2o WILHELMUS LENDERS BY M 2, if...

AGENT March 6, 1962 L. MEGENS EI'AL 3,023,979

DEVICE FOR ENDWISE UNWINDING OF DELIVERY REELS Filed April 19, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 77b B76 A75 77a 73a 26 72 \40 7la INVENTOR LUDOVICUS MEGENS WILHELMUS LEONARD LOUIS LENDERS Z ,ehk A ENT United States Patent Ofitice 3,923,979 Patented Mar. 6, 1 962 3,023,979 DEVECE FOR ENDWESE ING OF DELIVERY REELS Ludovicus Megens and Wiihelmns Leonard Louis Lenders, Eindhoven, Netherlands, assignors to North American Philips Company, line, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 19, 1957, Ser. No. 653,784 Claims priority, application Netherlands May 19, 1956 Claims. (Cl. 242155) Devices for endwise unwinding of delivery reels are known. Such devices comprise a holder for the delivery reel, a guide wheel and a pivotal arm carrying one or more unwinding wheels. The known devices furthermore comprise a braking device which is controlled by the movements of the arm and which acts upon the guide wheel with a continuously variable braking force, known devices have the disadvantage that their structure is comparatively complicated, so that the adjustment of the prescribed stress of the wire, which operation must be practicable for frequently unskilled men operating such devices, i fairly complicated.

In order to mitigate said disadvantage, the wire winding device of said kind according to the invention is characterized in that a first member coupled with the arm, the position of which corresponds at any moment to that of the arm, co-acts with a second member in a manner such that upon rotation of the first member a relative movement of said two members occurs, with the re sult that one member performs a movement in the direction of the geometric axis about which the first member can rotate, which movement controls the braking device acting upon the guide wheel.

With certain kinds of coils to be wound, a given additional operation must be carried out after a prescribed number of windings has been wound. Said operation may consist, for example, in forming a branch in the wire material or interposing an insulating layer between the windings. If the prescribed number of windings, before this additional operation has been performed is exceeded for some reason or other, the excess windings of the coil being prepared must first be removed and only thereafter can said operation be performed. If the wire unwinding device, by means of which the wire material is supplied to the coil,, does not allow the temporarily superfluous wire material to be wound back to the supply reel, this material must be broken off and removed. in this case it is necessary, after said operation has been performed, to provide a weld between the wire material where is already present on the reel and the material which is supplied back to the wire unwinding device. This involves loss of time and also a poorer quality of the product.

One embodiment of the wire-unwinding device according to the invention, which comprises means for winding wire material back onto the supply reel, obviates said problem. This embodiment is characterized in that a Wire guide, preferably stationary in space, is provided which can be placed in the path of the wire portion coming from the supply reel. This wire guide is coupled with the second member in a manner such that, when the wire guide becomes operative, the second member is moved, with the result that one of the said two members also performs a movement in the direction of the geometric axis and the braking device is released.

in another embodiment of the invention, the wire guide for winding back the wire is coupled with the second member in a manner such that, when the wire guide is made operative or inoperative, the second member performs a rotation about the geometric axis with respect to the first member.

Since during the operation of the wire-unwinding device Said according to the present invention in winding coils the brake is operative during a large portion of the operating time of the device, a development of heat may occur, which cannot be neglected. In view thereof, in another embodiment of the Wire-unwinding device according to the invention, the braking surfaces are situated between the guide wheel and part of the frame of the device. This embodiment affords the advantage that the heat produced during braking may be dissipated rapidly and efiiciently via the mass of the frame.

In order that the invention may be readily carried into effect, one embodiment will now be described more fully, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic side-view of one embodiment of the wire unwinding device according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view, on an enlarged scale, of one embodiment of the braking device used in the arrangement of FIG. 1.

I68. 3 and 4 show two other embodiments of such a braking device.

For the sake of clarity, in all figures, the'member coupled with the arm is indicated by A (with a reference numeral), the geometric axis, about which the member A rotates, by XX and the second member by B (with a reference numeral). Furthermore, it has been assumed in the embodiments shown that the arm carrying the unwinding wheels is coupled directly with the member A. In this case the angular displacement performed by the arm is equal and of the same direction'as that of the first member A. However, it is conceivable that said arm and the member A, instead of forming a unit, are coupled with one another, for example, via several gear wheels. In this case, the position of the member corresponds at any moment to that of the arm carrying the unwinding wheels, but the angular displacements are usually not of the same direction and/or equal.

The wire unwinding device shown in FIG. 1, the braking device of which is shown on an enlarged scale in FIG. 2, comprises a support 1 in the shape of a cylindrical envelope open at its side. At its lower side, said support has a base 2, which is provided with a central projection 3, on which bears a wire reel 4 to be unwound by means of a recess 5 provided in end flanges 6 and 7 of this reel. A cap 8 of very smooth material, such as nylon, bears upon the upper flange of the reel 4. The support 1 merges at its upper side into a hollow, conical envelope 9, the upper portion of which is visible above the line of fracture Y-Y. A plane frame plate 10 is secured by means of bolts (not shown) to the upper side of said conical envelope.

A stationary sleeve 12 is secured by means of screwthreads and locked by means of a nut 13 in an aperture 11 provided in the frame plate 10 (see FIG. 2). A guide wheel 14 can rotate freely on the left-hand end 12a of the sleeve 12. The (first) member A15 on the right-hand end 12b of sleeve 12 can rotate freely with its nave portion 15a about the axis XX. An arm 17 is secured in the member A15 by mean of a clamping bolt 16. The right-hand end 1512 of the member A15 has the form of a cup-shaped disc; its profile, which is variable in the direction of the geometric axis XX, is indicated by 150.

A pin-shaped member 18a, which is slidable in aperture 12c provided in the sleeve 12, has secured to it the second member B18. This member carries on each of the projecting spindles 19 and 20 a roller 21, 22 respectively. Secured to the end of the spindle 19 is a coupling piece 23 (see FIG. 1).

A member 24 in the form of a manual adjusting knob is secured in an adjustable manner by means of screwthread to the left-hand end of the pin-shaped member 18a. Arranged between the inner surface of the member 2.4 and the surface of the guide wheel 14 is a compression spring package 25 built up from a plurality of dish-shaped springs and a ball-bearing 26. The spring package 25 pulls via the pin-shaped member 18a the rollers 21 and 22 provided on the second member B18 against those portions of the profile 15c provided on the first member A15 which are diametrically opposite the rollers 21 and 22.

A ring-shaped portion 27 of the guide wheel 14 and the opposing surface of the frame plate serve as braking surfaces.

In FIG. 1, an unwinding wheel 28, which can rotate freely about a shaft 29 clamped in position in the arm 17, is arranged on the left-hand end of the arm 17.

In the rest position of the device, the arm 17 is directed upwards more steeply than shown in FIG. 1 under the action of the spring 30, of which one end is secured to a point 32 of the frame and the other to a point 33 of the arm 17. However, if the wire material which is led from the reel 4 through the inner side of the conical envelope 9 and via a wire guide 34 consisting of a small felt block via the guide wheel 14 and subsequently via the unwinding roller 28 (see FIG. 1) and a force P is exerted upon this wire material, the arm moves downwards to a greater or lesser extent dependent upon the value of said force and assumes, for example, the position shown in FIG. 1. When this force becomes greater, the arm moves further downwards against the action of spring 30. When the force become smaller, the spring 30 again pulls the arm 17 upwards. A second spring 31 chiefly has the task to avoid that, when the force P abruptly disappears, for example in the case of rupture of the unwinding portion of the wire, the arm 17 jumps upwards under the action of spring 30 to thus cause damage to the device.

The braking device utilized in the wire-unwinding device has to fulfill the requirement in winding a reel that upon increase in the tension of the wire material and the resultant downward movement of the arm 17, wire is supplied from the delivery reel. The control of the braking device brought about by the movement of the arm 17 now allows rotation of the guide wheel 14. This will be explained more fully with reference to FIG. 2. Upon rotation of the first member A15, rigidly coupled to the arm 17, about the geometric axis X--X, which rotation is effected upon upwards or downwards movement of the arm 17, the location of the profile 150 provided on the cup-shaped disc is varied with respect to the rollers 21 and 22, which for the time being are imagined to be stationary in space. When the arm 17 of FIG. 1 moves downwards, this results in less high portions of the profile 15c coming to lie opposite the rollers 21 and 22. The spring thus can relax a little. The force exerted upon the guide wheel 14 by means of the ball-bearing 26 decreases, as well as the pressure which the braking surfaces 27 of the guide wheel 14 and the frame exert upon one another. As a result thereof, the guide wheel 14 can start to rotate and thus supply winding material to the winding area.

While in this case the second member B18, which slides in the direction of the geometrical axis X--X to the left and serves as a control member for the brake,

has released the brake, the second member B18 moves to the right when the arm 17 moves upwards and thus causes via the pin-shaped member 18a an increase in the braking force exerted upon the guide wheel 14.

In order to render this possible with the device shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, the second member B18 can rotate about the geometric axis XX of FIG, 2. Such a movement may be imparted to the member B18 by means of a movement of a pull rod 35 in its longitudinal direction. The pull rod 35 has coupled with its upper end another rod 36, which is connected to the coupling piece 23. Secured to the plate-shaped member 10 is a fixed abut- .rnent 38 provided with an aperture 37, through which the 'rod 36 can move, but this possibility of movement is restricted by means of a further abutment 38a provided on a junction piece 39 between the pull rods 35 and 36. Furthermore, a collar 40 is secured to the upper end of the pull rod 36, a compression spring 41 being provided between the collar 40 and the abutment 38. The pull rod 35 is connected via a pivot 42 to an arm 43, which can rotate about a shaft 44 provided on a projection 45 of the support 1. The arm 43 carries a crook-shaped wire guide 46, which is shown separately in plan view in FIG. 1. When the arm 43 is moved into the dotted line position 43a, the pull rods 35 and 36 and the coupling piece 23 are moved downwards, so that the rollers 21 and 22 provided on the second member B18 assume the position 21a and 22a shown in dotted lines. In this case, the spring 41 is stretched between the collar 40 and the fixed stop 38; since the wire guide 46, which now occupies the position 46a, has moved beyond its initial position as a result of the location of the point of application 42 of the pull rod 35 with respect to the pivot 44, the spring 41 is not capable of relaxing and the rollers 21 and 22 retain the positions 21a and 22a shown in dotted lines.

During this movement, the rollers 21 and 22 have come opposite a less elevated portion of the profile 15c on the cup-shaped disc 15b, which for the time being is imagined to be at rest. Consequently, in this case also, the second member B18 is capable of moving along the geometric axis XX to the left by the action of the spring 25. The pressure of engagement of the braking surfaces is thus reduced. The guide wheel 14 may be rotated more readily about the geometric axis XX.

As soon as the wire guide 46 is moved, the arm 17 moves upwards, however, against the action of spring 30, since the release of the brake resulting from the movement of the member B18 is again neutralized immediately from moment to moment due to the simultaneous displacement of the member A15 with the arm 17 as a result of the supply of new wire material along the wheel 14, which always seeks while slowly slipping to a new position of equilibrium. The tensile stress which prevails in the wire then decreases, since the spring 30 gradually relaxes as a result of the upward movement of the arm 17. Before the stress of the wire has decreased to an undesirable low value, the wire guide 46 has meshed with the wire portion wound off the supply reel and prevent further unwinding from the supply reel. Consequently, the arm 17 cannot move upwards further and the stress P in the wire remains constant. Due to the continued movement of the wire guide 4,6 and the member B18 connected thereto, the brake is now released completely. From this moment, the temporarily superfluous wire material can readily be wound back onto the supply reel 4 with the brake completely released, the force still acting upon the arm 17, which force is exerted by the spring 30, ensuring that the stress in the wire material to be wound back is maintained.

During the movement of the arm 43 towards the dotted line position, the wire guide 46 has come into the path of the wire portion which is still slowly unwound from the reel 4 due to the upward movement of the arm 17, so that this wire portion cannot run freely 011 the reel 4, such as was the case in the unwinding of this reel. The reel 4 may be rotated by hand. so that the superfluous wire material is wound back onto this reel. This rotation of the reel 4 may be effected without any difiiculty, since the flange 6 of the reel 4 can rotate about the projection 3 via several balls 49 in raceways 47 and 48.

It will be evident that it would also be possible for the motion devices of the rollers 21 and 22 and that of the guide 46 to be operated individually. However, it is more practical for them to be coupled in the manner shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows a modification of the braking device. A sleeve 63 is fixed by means of screwthread in an aperture 62 of a frame plate 61) and locked therein by means of a nut64. The guide wheel 61 can rotate freely on the left-hand end 63a of the sleeve 63. The first member, which is thus coupled with the arm (not shown) carrying the unwinding wheels, is indicated by A65. The nave portion 65b of this member can rotate freely on the righthand end 63b of the sleeve 63. Connected rigidly to a the first member A65 is a pin-like member 650 which extends through an aperture 630 provided in the sleeve 63. In a similar manner as shown in FIG. 2, a member 24 is secured by means of screwthread to the left-hand end of the pin 63c and has its inner side engaged by the compression spring package 25, which is supported at its other end by the ball-bearing 26. Due to the fact that the first member A65 can rotate freely on the end 63b of the sleeve 63, the position of the first member A65 in the direction of rotation about the geometric axis XX is determined at any moment by the stress in the unwinding portion of the wire and the oppositely acting tension of the spring 30.

Furthermore, the second member B66 can rotate on the outer surface of the nut 64. The position of this member is determined by the position of the wire guide 46 (FIG. 1), which is connected via several junction members at 66c into the second member B66. A helical spring 67, of which one end 67a bears in a recess 63 of the frame plate 60 and its other end engages behind a projection 66a of the member B66, ensures that a preliminary tension in this connection is maintained.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the surfaces 65:: and 660 of the first and second members A65 and B66, which are spaced apart and adjacent one another in the direction of the geometric axis XX, are provided with several local depressions 65d and 66d. A pressure member 69, which in this case has the shape of a pin, bears in each pair of associated depressions. It will be evident that the spacing between the members A65 and B66 is larger or smaller according as the longitudinal axes of these pins-are at a smaller or larger angle to the geometric axis XX. In the position shown in FIG. 3, in which the longitudinal axes of these pins are parallel to the geometric axis XX, the spacing between said surfaces 65c and 66c of the members A65 and B66 is thus a maximum. This implies that the pin-shaped member 650 in this case occupies its extreme right-hand position and hence the maximum braking force is exerted between the guide wheel 61 and the frame plate 66. However, if the pins 69 occupy a more or less inclined position between the surfaces 65c and 660, which position crosses the geometric axis XX, the pin-shaped member 65c moves through a larger or smaller distance to the left under the action of the spring package 25 and the brake is released wholly or in part. The aforementioned crossing position of the longitudinal axes of the pinshaped members 69 occurs if the associated depressions 65d and 66a perform a relative rotation about the system axis XX. This rotation may be due to either the movement of the arm (not shown), which is coupled with the first member A65, or (and) the operation of the wire guide 46 of FIG. 1, which as previously explained, engages via several junction parts in the aperture 662 provided in the second member B66.

FIG. 4 shows a further modification of the braking device. In this modification, the frame plate and the guide wheel are indicated by 76 and 71, respectively. The braking surfaces are situated between them at the area of an annular elevation 71a on the guide wheel 71. In this embodiment also, a sleeve 73 is secured by means of screwthread in the aperture 72 of the frame plate 70 and locked therein by means of a member 74 in the form of a nut. The guide wheel 71 can rotate freely on the left-hand end 73a of the sleeve 73. The member A75, coupled with the arm (not shown), has a hollow portion 75b, which is provided with internal screwthread 75c. This screwthread co-acts with screwthread 76a provided on the right-hand end 76a of the second member B76. The first member A75 is provided with a pin-shaped proof the Wire guide 46 (FIG. 1).

jection 75c in a manner similar to that shown in FIG. 3, which projection extends through an aperture 73b provided in the sleeve 73 and the left-hand end of which is connected via a screwthreaded connection to the member 24 previously described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. This member co-acts in the manner previously described, via the compression spring package 25, with the ballbearing 26 which acts upon the guide wheel 71.

The second member B76 to which the wire guide 46 of FIG. 1 is connected at 760 via several junction parts (the preliminary tension in this connection is maintained by the spring 77) can rotate freely on the right-hand end 730 of the sleeve 73. As previously mentioned, the righthand end 76a of the second member B76 carries via screwthread 76e75e the first member A75.

The angular position of the member B76 with respect to the geometric axis XX is determined by the position The spring 77 is wound about the nut 74 and has one end 77a secured thereto in a recess. The other end of spring 77 engages behind a projection 76d of the second member B76.

The angular position of the member A75 with respect to the geometric axis XX is determined at any moment with the intermediary of the arm (not shown) by the stress P in the unwinding wire portion and by the tension of the spring 39, both of FIG. 1.

Starting from a given relative angular position of the first and second members A75 and B76 and the associated braking torque exerted by the braking surfaces, the braking force varies due to a relative rotation of these two members about the geometric axis XX. If, for example, the stress P of the wire (see FIG. 1) increases and wire material is to be supplied to the reel to be wound, the arm and hence the member A75 rotate on the screwthread 75e76e and thus perform an axial displacement in the direction of the geometric axis XX. In the specified case, in the drawing this will be a movement to the left, so that the pin-shaped member 75c also moves to the left and the brake is thus slightly released. As a result thereof, wire is supplied to the reel to be wound.

If, at a given moment, wire must be wound back onto the delivery reel and hence the wire guide 46 of FIG. 1 is made operative, this results in a rotation of the second member B76 about the geometric axis XX. Supposing that during this movement of the member B76 an angular displacement of the member A75 does not occur, then due to the presence of the screwthreaded connections 75c- 76c between the members A75 and B76 there will also be a displacement of the member A75 in the direction of the geometric axis XX, since during such a rotation by the member B76 in the axial direction is maintained at its original position with respect to the geometric axis XX by means of the portion 77b of the spring 77, which engages the end surface of the projection 76d.

In the embodiments shown, the member 24 is secured with the aid of screwthread to the associated pin-shaped projection. This construction makes it possible for the tension of the spring 25 and hence the force of engagement of the braking surfaces to be adjusted at will within broad limits by rotating the member 24 on the pin-shaped projection. For this purpose, the member 24 is shaped in the form of a manual knob.

In those cases in which the unwinding device is not designated for winding back, it suffices to provide a possibility of movementabout the geometric axis XX for only one of the members A and B.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, it would in this case be possible to fix the rotary member B66 in space. In this case, it is structurally simple to provide the depressions 66d directly in the frame plate, which plate would thus constitute the second member indicated by B. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the same effect may be obtained by arranging that the screw-threaded portion of the sleeve 73 forms a unit with the right-hand end 76a of the member B76, which thus cannot rotate about the geometric axis X-X and can dispense with the projection 76d. The screwthread, by means of which the sleeve 73 is secured in the aperture 72 of the frame plate 70, may in this case merge into the screwthread 76e, with which the screwthread 75a in the member A75 co-acts.

What is claimed is:

1. In a wire dereeling device including a wire reel, a movable Wire guide, and an unwinding wheel supported by a pivotable arm, a braking device for controlling the rate of unwinding of the wire comprising a guide wheel rotatable about a given axis, a plate member, means resiliently urging said guide wheel against said plate member including a pin rotatably secured at one end to a housing, a spring in said housing being urged against said guide wheel by said housing, said pin and said housing being movable axially relatively to said plate member for varying the pressure on said spring, and means to move said pin and said housing axially including first and second members coupled respectively to said arm and to said pin and rotatable therewith, means responsive to movements of said first member to move the pin axially as the arm pivots thereby varying the pressure on the spring and applying a variable braking force to said guide wheel, and means coupled to said second member and to said wire guide and responsive to a movement of the wire guide to rotate the second member relative to the first member to decrease the pressure on the spring thereby releasing the brake to permit rewinding the wire.

2. In a wire dereeling device'including a wire reel, a movable wire guide, and an unwinding wheel supported by a pivotable arm, a braking device for controlling the rate of unwinding of the wire comprising a guide wheel rotatable about a given axis, a plate member, means resiliently urging said guide wheel against said plate member including a pin rotatably secured at one end to a housing, a spring in said housing being urged against said guide wheel by said housing, said pin and said housing being movable axially relatively to said plate member for 3 varying the pressure on said spring, and means to move said pin and said housing axially including first and second members coupled respectively to said arm and to said pin and rotatable therewith, means responsive to movement of said first member to move the pin axially as the arm pivots thereby varying the pressure on the spring and applying a variable braking force to said guide wheel, means coupled between the wire guide and the second member and responsive to a movement of the wire-guide to rotate the second member relative to the first member to decrease the pressure on the spring and release the brake to permit rewinding superfluous wire on the wire reel, and resilient means responsive to a movement of the arm when the brake is released to maintain the arm in a position for substantially constant tension in the Wire.

3. A wire dereeling device as claimed in claim 2 in which the means responsive to movement of the first member for moving the pin axially is cup-shaped disc member consistuting a portion of the first member and having an irregular profile which cooperates with a roller connected with the second member.

4. A wire dereeling device as claimed in claim 2 in which the means responsive to the movement of the first member for moving the pin axially is a pin member connecting the first and second members, the ends of which bear upon those members.

5. A wire dereeling device as claimed in claim 2 in which the first member is connected to the axially movable pin means responsive to the movement of the first member for moving the pin axially and a portion of said second member is in threaded engagement with the first member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,642,236 Heizer June 16, 1953 2,643,075 Moore June 23, 1953 2,686,018 Courtney Aug. 10, 1954 2,714,494 Wentz Aug. 2, 1955 a-Bur Y PM. 

